Chasing Daisies
by Arye.Tyler
Summary: (RusPrus) School is stressful for anyone. For Gilbert Beilschmidt, it's a little more than stressful. He spends his days worrying about his sick mother at home. He knows that she won't live forever, but when the inevitable happens, how will Gilbert pull through?
1. Chapter 1

_'I never really think about it,'_ Gilbert mused as he watched his mother cooking. _'But...'_

His father, Christoph, bolted across the room to steady Adalia, Gilbert's mother, as she burst into one of her coughing fits. She smiled up at him and said that she was fine after it subsided, but she was _lying_. Gilbert and Christoph could both see it; luckily, Gilbert's little brother Ludwig couldn't. He idolized their mother.

"Chris, I'm fine!" Adalia repeated, beating Christoph with her dish towel jokingly. "But _you_ won't be if you don't sit down, sir!"

He laughed and kissed the top of her silver-haired head. Adalia Lisette Beilschmidt was _not_ albino (nor was her eldest son, at least not the way people thought that he was), but her hair was such a pale blonde and her skin so fair that people often believed that she was. When she'd married Christoph, she'd been a beautiful woman; she still was, really, but her illness had taken its toll on her. At thirty-seven, she always looked tired and worn.

Ludwig was far too young to realize what was happening, so nobody told him.

Gilbert suspected that he understood more than they gave him credit for, though.

When Ludwig came down the stairs, Adalia paused in what she was doing to kiss the top of his head and flick his forehead.

"You wouldn't have to wash your hair so often if you didn't use so much hair-gel to slick it back, Lud," she chided.

"Ja, I know, I know, Mutti," he replied with a little smile.

Christoph watched over the top of his newspaper to make sure that neither of his boys distressed Adalia too much. He knew that they really wouldn't; it was just a precaution. They were all very careful with the delicate matriarch of their family.

Gilbert also suspected that his father wasn't as held-together as he seemed; deep down, he knew that Christoph would fall to pieces when the inevitable happened. What he didn't know was if his dad would be able to pull himself back together.

"Gil, you did your homework, right?" Adalia asked as she pulled the frying pan from the stove and started plating the eggs.

"Ja! Of course! The awesome me always does his homework, Mama!" he replied with a grin.

She smiled ruefully and lightly rapped him on the head with the spatula then her eyes widened. She put down the frying pan and circled the table to start messing with his hair.

"Oi! What're you doing, Mama?" he demanded.

"There he is!" she cheered.

Adalia stopped messing with his hair to show him the little yellow chick nestled in her cupped hands. She laughed sheepishly.

"I was worried that I'd squished Gilbird," she explained. "Be careful taking him to school, okay?"

"I will, Mama," he sighed dramatically. "You worry too much!"

It was the wrong thing to say. Her blue eyes (the same blue eyes that his brother had) watered as she handed the little chick back to Gilbert. Adalia retreated with the excuse of making sure the boys had everything they needed in their backpacks; Gilbert and Christoph knew that it was really so that the rest wouldn't see her crying.

_'One day soon, you won't be with us anymore, Mutti.'_


	2. Chapter 2

When Emilia Vargas threw something at the back of Gilbert's head as he walked up the stairs to his school, he figured that it was just an ordinary day. His rude Italian friend (and her equally rude younger brother, Lovino) was perpetually greeting him like that. He blamed it on Emi not having a mother to teach her own to be a girl.

Mrs. Vargas had died when they were still in grade school. Cancer.

Emi caught up to him at the doors of the school, tossing her long curly ponytail over her shoulder with a vaguely irritated look on her face. She'd always wanted to cut her hair short, but her grandfather flipped out whenever it was even suggested.

"How's your mama?" she asked in a mumble as they walked down the hallway.

"It's one of her better days," he replied.

She patted his shoulder and flashed him a smile. Then they were among their group of friends and there was no more time to discuss his mother.

"_My_ little sister? In school? Surely the world is ending," Francis quipped.

"You're very funny, Franny; funnier every day, in fact. By the time you're eighty, you'll probably be as funny as you think you are," Emi shot back.

Francis and Emi were half-siblings. Francis' mother, a beautiful but cold Frenchwoman, had raised her son in Paris after divorcing their father, but he'd moved in with his paternal family after the death of Emi's mother to help take care of his younger siblings. Emi had always been a handful for him.

"You're both pretty, ladies," Antonio broke in.

All three of the others stared at Antonio blankly, having thought that he was too absorbed in doodling on his arms to hear the siblings arguing, before bursting into laughter. Antonio just flashed them that glass-half-full smile of his.

"We're going to be late to class," he added.

Emi swore in Italian and took off down the hallway, a cackling Francis following her. Antonio shook his head and shot Gilbert a softer, sympathetic smile before heading up the staircase to their immediate right.

Gil whistled as he walked down the hallway to his classroom, on time for Mr. Jones' class for once. Unfortunately, a giant Russian man-mountain was blocking his path.

"Ah, Gilbert! I was looking for you, da!" he said cheerfully.

"What do you want, Ivan?" Gil snapped.

"I'd heard that your mama was sick. She is getting around to feeling better, da?" Ivan asked.

Gilbert froze and found himself unable to respond. How had Ivan found out about Adalia? She'd quit her job as the school nurse a few years before, when her health began to decline. None of the student body that weren't friends with Gilbert, Ludwig or their cousins Vash and Roderich had seen her since.

Luckily, he was saved from having to respond by the occasionally-wonderful Juliette Chevalier, Francis' elder cousin on his mother's side. She claimed that she lived with Francis and his siblings to help him out, but Gilbert thought that she lacked any real maternal instincts; she certainly didn't seem like the cuddly-and-caring type.

"How tactless, asking him questions like that, Ivan," she scolded in an accent that was almost heavier than Francis'. "_And_ you are blocking the door. You should move, oui?"

Ivan blinked, and Gilbert was momentarily worried for Juliette's health, but he stepped aside with that eerie smile of his.

"Ah, sorry Juliette," Ivan laughed. "After you."

Even though Ivan followed the dark-haired beauty into the classroom, Gilbert got the distinct feeling that their conversation wasn't over.

Juliette attached herself to Gilbert for much of the remaining school day but ditched him upon noticing Mr. Jones' half-brother, Mr. Williams, around lunch time. Though he thought that it was weird for her to have a crush on a teacher, Gilbert left Juliette to it. Mr. Williams was nice, and at least he was younger than Mr. Jones.

Plus, Juliette could be really a little snobbish.

With a shrug, Gil made his way outside to find his other group of friends, since Francis was off being Francis and Antonio had lunch detention. That left Gilbert with Arthur, Siobhan, Alieke and Mathias.

When he got to their little group's usual lunch spot under the tree in the courtyard, Siobhan and Alieke were already there. Honestly, Gilbert wasn't entirely sure when or why he'd become friends with either of them. That wasn't to say that he disliked either of the girls, but it felt like he'd known them forever. Realistically, though, he hadn't known either before he was twelve the previous year, when they'd both transferred to his school, Siobhan from some prestigious all-girls school in Ireland and Alieke from a military base in Greenland.

Siobhan shoved her book bag off of the bench that she was sitting on when she noticed Gilbert, while Alieke just shifted so that it didn't land on her head.

"I'm not moving, Gil," Alieke murmured, opening one brilliantly blue eye.

"I guess I'll step on your head, then," he retorted.

She mumbled something that was probably insulting in Danish as she sat up and glared at him blearily. Gil and Siobhan both just laughed, and that was when Arthur and Mathias appeared.

"Oi, wanker!" Arthur began as he sat at Siobhan's feet, legs crossed. "Why's Ivan looking for you?"

"What? He is?" Gil replied.

"Ja," Mathias interjected. "We ran into him on our way here."

"What'd you do now, Gil?" Alieke asked calmly, nibbling on the sandwich Mathias had made her. "It's best to just be honest; I can always have Sofia talk to him."

"The awesome me didn't do anything!" Gilbert protested. "That creepy Russian just started asking about Mama today!"

"Maybe he's trying to be nice," Alieke suggested.

Arthur and Siobhan simultaneously scoffed at the suggestion, as Gilbert thought that they would; even Gilbird chirped in protest. Alieke looked like she would argue for a moment before shrugging and apparently deciding that it just wasn't worth it.

Ivan Braginsky, who had been standing behind a nearby tree, took off running towards the school. The group that had been talking didn't hear a thing.


	3. Chapter 3

When he was sure that the group couldn't hear him, Ivan broke out into a full-on sprint.

_'They'll be in the library,'_ he repeated to himself over and over.

Honestly, Ivan hadn't known what to think a few years previously when the kind-hearted, cheerful school nurse vanished. When he'd heard that it was because she was ill, he'd wanted to find out if she would ever recover and return, so he'd approached her eldest son.

Gilbert Beilschmidt...

"_Ivan? Ivan, what are you doing here again?" Ms. Ada asked with a little smile on her face._

_"My stomach hurts," he complained._

_"That's funny, your stomach hurt yesterday too," she recalled._

_Ada pulled up a chair so that she could sit in front of the nine-year-old, tilting her head to meet his eyes. She smiled up at him; he didn't want to, but he smiled back anyway._

_"Hey, Ivan, can I tell you a story?" she asked._

_"What? Sure."_

_"Once upon a time, there was a very lonely princess," she began. "This princess' father didn't want her to get hurt, so he locked her away in a tower, far away from everyone else."_

_"What a jerk," Ivan interrupted. "How will the princess make friends?"_

_"For a long time, she didn't," Adalia replied with a laugh. "She sat in the window of her tower, and she watched the other children playing, until, one day, many years later, a prince caught sight of the lonely princes in the tower. He snuck into the palace and up to the tower to see the princess. He was her first friend, but her father caught him."_

_"Not her father again!" Ivan protested. "I don't like him."_

_"Her father sent the princess far away, but she picked daisies as she went and dropped the petals behind herself," the nurse continued with a fond smile. "The prince noticed when he went looking for her and followed the trail to the princess! When the two got back, everyone was happy, except for the princess' father. He still thought that something bad was going to happen to the princess."_

_"He sounds paranoid," Ivan cut in._

_"The king was_ **_so _**_convinced that something bad would happen to the princess that he banished the kind prince. Somewhere out there, he's still trying to follow the daisy trail back," she concluded. "And that's the end of the story! What'd you think?"_

_"What do you mean that's the end?!" Ivan demanded. "The prince didn't find the princess!"_

_"That's the point Ivan," Ada laughed, flicking his nose. "Now you kids have to follow your own daisy trails to your princes and princesses."_

_"But what if a prince is looking for another prince?" the little boy asked cautiously._

_"It's the same idea; he should follow the daisies to his prince," she replied with a little smile._

_Ivan considered this for a moment while Ada got up and went about straightening up the nurse's office. It was getting close to recess, and she knew that she'd be getting scrapped up elbows and knees soon._

_"My stomach doesn't hurt anymore, Miss Ada; I think I'll go to recess," Ivan said after a moment. "Can I have a sticker? A sunflower one?"_

_She nodded with a soft laugh and stuck a little smiling sunflower to his chest. Ivan poked the sticker and smiled up at her._

_"By the way, Miss Ada," he said on his way out the door. "I think that sunflowers are prettier than daisies."_

As expected, Sofia and Juliette were sitting together in the library, laughing at some joke that Sofia had probably made because she was funnier than Juliette. Predictably, it was Sofia that noticed him first, standing so that he could take her seat.

"Vanya? You look ill," she noted, frowning and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Do you want me to take you to the nurse?"

"Nyet! Nyet, nyet, nyet! I do not!" he replied, shaking his head furiously.

"You have to calm down," Juliette chided. "How much help can Sofia and I be when you're speaking gibberish?"

Ivan turned watery amethyst eyes on Juliette, who smiled in some effort to be reassuring. He appreciated it and therefore decided that he wouldn't tell her that her efforts failed.

"Now, what happened?" she prodded.

"I heard Gilbert and his friends talking," he sniffed. "They hate me. He hates me."

"I don't think that Alieke hates _anyone_," Sofia mused.

"Not the point, Sofi," Juliette scolded mildly. "Ivan, I'm sure that Gilbert doesn't hate you. Even if he does, it's his loss, not yours, oui?"

Ivan fell silent, not wanting to reply to that. Maybe he should have gone to Toris for comfort; Sofi and Juliette could try all they wanted, but neither was an especially nurturing type of person. Sofia was awkward and Juliette was just...entirely too much _herself_.

"Did you find out anything about Ms. Ada?" Sofi asked in an effort to change the subject.

"Nyet," he sighed. "I will visit their house after school, da?"

The girls shot incredulous looks at each other, but nothing was said to deter Ivan. There was no way that they could, anyway.

In the end, Sofia agreed to join Ivan as he walked to the Beilschmidt family's house. Juliette would have (at least she claimed that she would have), but "[she had] ballet recital, then [she had] to practice piano and violin and somewhere in there find time to do homework."

It all came down to Juliette not wanting to get wrapped up in what she thought was a bad idea, really.

Dragging Sofia and Toris along (and Feliks, who complained about Ivan "like, always stealing Toris! We had a freaking date planned!"), Ivan found himself standing outside the front door of Gilbert's house. Luckily (or unluckily depending on the day he was having), it was Gilbert's little brother Ludwig that answered the door.

"What is it that you want?" Ludwig demanded, looking irritated.

"Gil left his textbook on his desk after science," Sofi spoke up, peeking around Ludwig with a smile.

Ludwig narrowed his eyes at them but stepped aside to allow the group of people to step into his house. After a moment, a woman with long silver-blonde hair stuck her head out of the kitchen to see who had been at the door and smiled a little.

"Oh, you all," she said softly. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Gil's not home, yet; do you want something to eat while you wait?"

"Like, definitely; I'm starving!" Feliks agreed immediately.

Adalia laughed and waved them all into the kitchen. As the rest piled in, chattering and asking Ludwig questions about school (on Toris' part), Ivan examined his old school nurse. She'd lost weight since the last time he saw her, and she looked tired as she placed a plate of cookies on the table and stepped back.

"You quit your job, da?" Ivan asked her softly.

She turned to him with a little smile and nodded.

"Ja, I did. I...I haven't been so well, lately, Ivan," she explained softly.

Unfortunately, his attempts to ask any further questions were blocked by the sudden arrival of Gilbert.

"Mama!" he sing-songed. "I'm _home_!"

The eldest of the Beilschmidt boys that still lived at home drifted into the kitchen and froze when he saw the group of people sitting around his kitchen table.

"Get out," he commanded.

"That's, like, totally rude," Feliks complained.

"_GET OUT OF MEIN HOUSE_!" Gilbert thundered.

A few minutes later, the whole group found themselves tossed out of the house and on to the sidewalk outside by a visibly furious Gilbert. Sofia pursed her lips and brushed herself off, glancing over her shoulder. She found herself peering through the kitchen window as Adalia broke into a coughing fit, slumped against Gilbert's shoulder.

"Hey, Ivan," she began. "Wouldn't Emilia Vargas also know what's wrong with Gil's mom?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright, a few things to explain before the chapter starts.**

**First, the school they attend _is_ called World's Academy, or just the Academy or WA, because I was too lazy to think of a creative name. It's three schools that surround a very large courtyard. Most of the characters are currently thirteen in their second year of middleschool, because I go by how Americans do school since it's the only system I'm familiar with. A few, like Kiku (Japan), are in highschool. I screwed around with ages in order to make characters fit into their roles.**

**Second, I do not include Fem! versions of any characters in this story. Even my OCs are actually individual nations (or former nations, in the case of some). I'll let you guess who is who. Maybe I'll make it a game for reviews. Opinions?**

**Finally, I know that there was a big gap between the publishing of the last chapter and the publishing of this one. I'm very sorry for that; I'll try to avoid it in the future.**

**-Arye**

* * *

Emilia turned out to be harder to find than they thought that she would be. She didn't come to school the next day (though Lovino did and told them to eat bullets when he was asked about his elder sister), or the day after that. Ultimately, they annoyed Lovino until he hunted down her friend, Antonio's little sister Camille. Ivan learned, in the process, that Antonio had _a lot _of younger siblings, and many of the girls looked similar. He also learned that Camille was in his second-period class.

Anyway, Camille sent Emilia a threatening text message, so the eldest Vargas sibling agreed to come to school the next day. Apparently, Camille scared Emilia very much.

Sofia, Juliette and Ivan waited for Emilia by the school's gates the next day. Predictably (they _were _Italian, after all), almost everyone else was already in school by the time that the Vargas siblings were dropped off by their grandfather. Feliciano made that strange "ve" noise and scurried inside; Lovino just glowered at them. His glare was matched by Emilia, who seemed very disgruntled about having to come to school that day.

"What'd you want?" she demanded.

"Hello to you, too, cousin," Juliette sighed.

"Drop the bullshit. What'd you want?" Emilia repeated.

"You're friends with Gilbert, da?" Ivan cut in.

Emilia's hazel glower was now focused on Ivan. She was very short and rather skinny, so he wasn't very _scared_, per se, but...

For a moment, she sort of reminded him of his crazy little sister.

"What of it?" she demanded.

He held up his hands in mock surrender, laughing. It only seemed to make Emilia angrier, which was probably bad for his plan. He didn't want her refusing to talk to him.

"I just want to know what's wrong with his mama," he explained. "And if she'll come back to her job."

"What's wrong with Miss Ada is none of your fucking business, Russkie," she snarled.

She shouldered past him to enter the school with her customary hostility. Sofia turned to watch Emilia skip every other step on her way up the stairs to join her two little brothers and Camille. As she'd expected, the angry Italian didn't even look over her shoulder at them.

"That didn't go well," Sofia sighed. "_Now_, do you want me to talk to Alieke?"

The offer had been made days earlier. Sofia was close friends with the Greenlandic girl, though she seemed to be mildly annoyed by Alieke's boyfriend, Mathias. As Alieke was also good friends with Gilbert, Sofia had reasoned that Alieke would know what was wrong with his mother.

Ivan found Alieke bewildering and strange, though, so he'd originally said no. Realizing that Gilbert's closest inner-circle would not be giving him any answers, though, he reluctantly agreed. Sofia ran off to find her friend, promising to tell him what she learned at lunch.

"That's fine, as long as she doesn't bring Alieke with her," Juliette grumbled.

While Ivan and Juliette made their way into the school, Sofia bolted through the hallways. Usually, she'd walk with her brother Tino and his boyfriend, Berwald, but Alieke was always early to class, and Mathias would command her complete attention if Sofia didn't get to their shared first period soon.

Luckily, Alieke was alone when Sofia got to the class and took her seat to her friend's left. She was sure that Mathias would bring his loud-ness through the door soon, though.

"Hey, Ali!" she greeted her friend, panting.

"Sofi? What'd you do, run to class?" Alieke demanded.

"Ah, maybe."

"That was stupid. Mathias has the flu."

_'How the hell did she expect me to know that?'_ Sofia wondered as she continued to try to catch her breath. Alieke, meanwhile, began getting her things out for class, even though she'd sleep the whole time and copy Sofia's notes later. It helped her cause later when their history teacher, Mr. Jones, got angry with her for sleeping his entire class away.

"You're not usually so eager to talk to me this early in the morning," Alieke continued. "What's up?"

"You're good friends with Gilbert Beilschmidt, aren't you?"

"Ja, I am."

"What's up with his mom?"

Alieke leveled her with a rare serious look and shook her head.

"If Gil wanted to tell you, he would. Don't push the issue," she cautioned her friend.

"Is it really that bad?"

"It's really that bad."

Yelling at the front of the room pulled the attention of both to Mr. Jones attempting to evict Feliks for wearing a skirt...again. It was, more or less, a daily occurrence. Luckily for Kiku, it gave him just enough time to see Alice through the door before he fled.

Alice was Mr. Jones' daughter, and nobody thought that their teacher would be very happy about his "baby" dating a boy that attended the high school across the courtyard.

Alice smiled at Sofia and Alieke over her shoulder as she slipped into her seat in front of Alieke in time for her dad to return his focus to them. She waved to Mr. Jones with a look on her face that suggested that she wished that she hadn't been put in his class.

Though usually an attentive student, Sofia was distracted as she took her notes that day. Alieke was not, by nature, a secretive person, especially with Sofia. The two had known each other since Alieke's family had lived down the street from Sofia's when they were little kids. She didn't understand what could have made Alieke shut her out like that.

At the end of class, Alieke broke tradition. She woke herself and left without a word. Sofia wasn't sure if she'd done something to upset her or if she was avoiding questions. Maybe it was both.

Sofia went to her second period with a heavy heart, not sure how she'd tell Ivan that she hadn't been able to get any answers, either.

Camille and Emilia were sitting in the back of the room with their heads bent together when she arrived, whispering. Sofia was sure that it was about Ivan's questions; she just hoped that they didn't tell Gilbert.

Ivan looked so hopeful when Sofia took her seat beside him that she almost wanted to lie and say that Miss Adalia would be fine soon. She wasn't very good at lying, though, and she knew that. She shook her head.

"They're all very tight-lipped about it. Sorry, Ivan."

"It's okay, Sofi," he sighed.

"Vargas! Carriedo!" their teacher, Mr. Adnan, snapped from the front of the room. "Pay attention!"

"We're talking about something important, Turk!" Emilia returned.

"Nothing is more important than my class!" Mr. Adnan roared. "Now pay attention, or I'll move Carriedo!"

"Sometimes," Sofia grouched as Adnan and Emilia argued back and forth. "I wonder what it would be like to go to a normal school."

"It wouldn't be as fun!" Ivan laughed.

She shot him a dark look, but he seemed to be ignoring it, happily undermining Heracles Karpusi's attempts to get the teacher and student to settle down. Sofia rolled her eyes, deciding that she would pretend that she wasn't glad that he was feeling better.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note!**

**Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is the longest chapter of Chasing Daisies to date. It was a lot of fun to write; I really enjoy this story. I don't really think that I have much to explain, but...**

**Here's the deal. Whoever can guess the nation identity of the following characters correctly gets to request a scene in the seventh chapter (it would be the next, but I'm already working on the fifth and sixth chapters...). I could pick a really hard one, like Camille, but I'll stick to what I think is easy. The characters are:**

**-Juliette  
-Alieke  
-Emilia  
-Siobhan**

**I think I've said it before, but I'll repeat that they ****_are not_**** Fem!France, Fem!Denmark, Fem!Romano and Fem!Scotland. None of the OC's are the genderbent version of another country.**

**Well, I can't really think of anything else to say.**

**Happy reading!**

**-Arye**

* * *

At lunch that day, Gilbert was shocked to see Emilia, Antonio, Camille and Francis sitting with his other group of friends. Francis and Arthur were already bickering (Gil suspected that Franny was showing off for Camille and wondered how Antonio would feel about that) while Emilia, Alieke and Siobhan played cards. The Carriedo siblings seemed to be focusing their energies on egging on Franny and Artie.

"What're you guys doing here?" Gil demanded. "Couldn't resist my awesomeness?"

Most of the others ignored his obnoxious laughing, but Arthur yelled at him to "Belt up, wanker!" and Emilia threw a binder at him. He pouted as he rubbed his forehead and flopped down on the grass next to Siobhan.

"Not cool, Emi!" he complained. "You could've squished Gilbird!"

"And then Gil would've been without his better half," Siobhan teased.

The bickering of the group on the grass seemed to attract Antonio and Camille's attention; they both diverted their energies from encouraging Francis and Arthur to argue. Francis was visibly put-out by this, but Gil wasn't sure if Antonio saw. He hoped not. Toni could be scary when he thought that his sisters were getting unwelcome attention.

"I got out of lunch detention today, and Francis didn't have student council stuff to work on, so we thought we'd hang out with you," Antonio explained. "We haven't gotten much of a chance to, lately."

"The year's ending soon," Alieke noted softly. "Lukas is always busy with student council work, too."

"You'll be lonely next year," Camille observed. "Mathias and Lukas are both moving on to the high school, aren't they?"

Alieke nodded, taking the playing cards from Siobhan and Emilia so that she could put them away. Some kind of way, the group consolidated into one lopsided circle, sitting on the grass in front of the benches where they usually ate lunch. It was weird to not be sitting with Mathias, Gil noted.

"We should all hang out this weekend," Siobhan suddenly declared. "The whole group from last year. Remember how we used to spend every weekend together?"

"I could get my grandfather to drive us to the beach," Emilia mused. "Gil, you should bring the little potato."

Gil had figured out by that point that Emilia called him and all of his brothers potatoes. Ludwig, the youngest, was "the little potato" and Hans, the eldest, was "the huge potato." The rest of them fell somewhere between the two. Luckily, Hans and Gil's other two older brothers no longer lived at home.

"Why should I bring Luddy? You have a little crush on him, Emi?" he teased, hissing his signature laugh.

Emilia held up a textbook, which he was sure that she would have thrown at him had Antonio and Francis not held back her arms. She squirmed in their grasp, angrily shouting expletives about them and their mothers. This might have been why Ludwig refused to sit with them at lunch, Gilbert reflected. All of his friends were sort of...odd.

"Well, _I_ like the beach idea," Alieke decided with an air of finality. "I think that we should go."

For whatever reason, they never contradicted Alieke. They all agreed quickly, even Francis, who hated going to the beach with Arthur, and Antonio, who hated Camille going to the beach with Francis. It seemed to be an unwritten rule that they never disagreed with Alieke; Gil suspected that they were all afraid of what she'd do to them.

"The weekend coming up is a long one," the Greenlander continued. "We will leave for the beach tomorrow and spend the entire weekend there. You are only allowed to accept text messages from members of the group and family."

There was really no point in pursuing the topic; she'd gotten her last word. Alieke settled back into checking her playing cards to ensure that Emilia hadn't tried to cheat again, and conversation resumed. The group's collective focus shifted to Arthur and Siobhan, who bickered like children as often as they were a happy couple...perhaps more often. Arthur seemed to argue with anyone that came within ear shot of him.

"What are you arguing about now, Arturo? Juana?" Antonio asked.

"The limey doesn't want to go to the beach. Says he'd rather _spend time with family_," Siobhan sneered. "Bullocks!"

"Artie, you fucking killjoy! I'll tell Mr. Jones!" Gil threatened.

Arthur paled visibly and shook his head no. Gil grinned victoriously, deciding that he'd won this round. He would have to be worried about his British friend later, though; that damned rebellious streak would make Arthur get back at him in a way that was guaranteed to be embarrassing.

They spent the rest of lunch discussing their planned trip to the beach and who they would be seeing to tell of the plans. By the time that they returned to class, the entire group was abuzz with excitement. It felt like it had been an eternity since they'd gone to the beach together.

Gil found himself out of focus for the rest of the day, not able to properly pay attention to even teachers that he liked. He hadn't had such good news in a very long time. He just hoped that his father let him go. He would ask, he decided, when he first got home.

Of course, it wasn't his father that was waiting for him when he got home. Of all of the people it could have been, it had to be Hans and Mina. He'd forgotten that Christoph was out of town on a business trip.

Gilbert made sure to keep to the far side of the kitchen from his older brother and his wife. Though Mina was very nice, Hans tended to ignore her. Gil hated Hans.

"Bruder," Hans greeted him. "You're on time coming home for once."

"Don't be like that," Mina scolded. "You haven't seen each other in a year! Don't you have anything else to say to him?"

"I'm going to the beach this weekend," Gil blurted out. "With Luddy and some school friends."

The idea seemed to delight Mina; Gilbert suspected that she worried that he was anti-social, since she'd only ever met Francis, Antonio and Emilia. Hans was nowhere near so pleased.

"I thought you had exams coming up. Shouldn't you study?"

"We have two months until exams."

"That's not a lot of time."

"It's enough."

"Who will take care of Mutti?"

"Isn't that why_ you're_ here?"

"That's selfish."

"_I don't care_!" Gilbert exploded. "I'm thirteen; why can't I be selfish sometimes?!"

Mina looked like she would scold Gilbert for a moment, but the entire conversation was cut off by the appearance of Adalia. Hans subsided reluctantly, and Gil thought that his mother would refuse to let him go to the beach the next day. Instead, she smiled wanly.

"He's right, you know," she pointed out. "He and Luddy are just kids. Go ahead to the beach, Gil; take lots of pictures while you're there, okay? I'll loan you my camera."

Much like Gil's school friends never went against Alieke's decisions, his family never disobeyed his mother. The reasons were different, though, he suspected. In Alieke's case, it was probably fear. She was calm and soft-spoken, and none of them wanted to see her angry. In Adalia's case, it was the knowledge that she was fragile. She would not last forever; in fact, she may not last much longer. Nobody wanted their last memory of her to be arguing.

Hans glowered at Gilbert as Mina dragged him from the kitchen with a list that she'd, apparently, asked Adalia for in her hand. Adalia sighed and leaned against the counter for supporting, eyeing Gil wearily.

"In the future, just ask me, alright? Hans means well, but he's pushy. Like your father. Do you need money for the beach?"

"Mutti, I didn't-"

"I know," she cut him off. "You're a good boy, Gil. Have fun at the beach, alright?"

Adalia kissed his cheek and set him off to do his homework before he could say anything else. At the top of the stairs, he stopped and turned to go back and apologize, but he thought twice of it. It would have only upset her more, he decided as he continued on his way to his room.

At the very top of the stairs, though, he could have sworn that he heard someone crying.


End file.
